Father drugged, drowned three children, court told

Maria Chona, wearing glasses, mother of the children and estranged wife of the accused, leaves court. Photo: Kate Geraghty

When Steven Fraser picked up his children from his estranged wife he told them to kiss their mother goodbye. It was something he had never done in any access visit.

Over the next two days Fraser killed all three of his children in his Caringbah home, the NSW Supreme Court was told yesterday,.

Late on Saturday night of August 20, 2001, he gave his sons, five-year-old Ryan and four-year-old Jarrod, doses of Mogadon before drowning them, the court was told.

He placed Ryan on a mattress in the lounge room, and wrote on his face in felt-tip pen, "I love you Ryan, RIP xo". He left Jarrod in the main bedroom, with a similar message on his face.

Fraser spent the next day with his seven-year-old daughter, Ashley, and then killed her, the court was told. She struggled violently in the bathtub, the court heard, and Fraser hit her on the back of the neck to subdue her. He laid her on a bed and wrote on the wall, "There's no place like home."

On the day he picked the children up, he pleaded for six to eight hours with his wife, Maria Chona, to take him back, telling her he didn't want to be a "part-time father", the court heard.

She had begun a relationship with a new man, the court was told, and Fraser had begun to question her incessantly about her sexual relationship with him. "I can't accept someone else is going to take my place," he allegedly told her. "All I ever wanted was to be a good father."

The next morning when Fraser's mother arrived at the house, a toy monkey hung from an electrical cord from the ceiling. A knife had been placed through it, and tomato sauce used to look like fake blood.

When detectives arrived, they found Fraser naked in the bath, drinking milky liquid from a tumbler, the court heard. He was extremely agitated and tried to put his head under the water.

Fraser was taken under police guard to Sutherland Hospital where police allege he said: "My children were my world, I killed my kids to protect them. My children are in peace now."

Fraser has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

He stared ahead blankly while the Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, outlined allegations against him yesterday, telling the court he killed his children because he wished to punish Ms Chona for getting a new boyfriend, and refusing to reconcile with him.

Mr Tedeschi said there were human emotions at play, and not any mental illness.

But counsel for Fraser, John Stratton, told the court while there was no question his client had killed his children, the question was why he did it.

"Because of a mental abnormality, the accused's ability to judge right from wrong was impaired," he said.

"Are these things the accused did . . . the product of a normal mind or . . . of a deeply disturbed mind?"